All posts about
User experience

User experience is about how a person feels about using a product, system or service. (source: Wikipedia)

What I Bring to UX From… Architecture

Added on 30 September 2011 Peter Bogaards
Sounds more like information architecture, projects and clients to me.

“To do well in either architecture or user experience design, the ability to communicate well is key, and the most important part of communicating is listening. As designers, we need to listen to our clients and their customers to understand their needs and requirements. We need to communicate our designs to both our clients and our development teams in a way that they will understand. Our ideas need to be translated into designs and made concrete, through user scenarios, workflow diagrams, mock-ups or wireframes so that they can be discussed, understood, tested and improved upon. Communication becomes even more important once those designs start being built. As I already stated, nothing ever gets built as planned. Therefore, communication is key in working with the development team to evolve and refine the design as it gets built, and to manage the expectations of the client throughout the development process as those changes are occurring. And, a lot of that communicating is listening.”

(Jennifer Fraser a.k.a. @jlfraser ~ Johnny Holland Magazine)

Demystifying Design

Added on 20 September 2011 Peter Bogaards
‘Then a magic occurs’ is not enough anymore.

“Designers are makers who craft solutions to problems that plague customers, clients, and at times, society as a whole. The specialized tools and jargon (leading? kerning? cognitive load?) often understood only by other practitioners are a designer’s hallmarks. How we actually design and arrive at viable solutions is a mystery to most. Some believe this mystery helps us maintain the perceived value of design in our organizations. In today’s world – a world craving more and better design – however, this mystery is actually holding us back as a profession.”

(Jeff Gothelf a.k.a. @jboogie ~ A List Apart Issue 335)

What I Bring to UX From… Market Research

Added on 16 September 2011 Peter Bogaards
Market research is rooted in demographics related to consumerism. Design research does the psychographics of me and my ‘group’.

“Research plays a vital role in UX, as we need to understand our users and their motivations in order to design products which meet their needs. Market research is all about finding out what people do and why. But how many companies have combined market research and UX teams? I’m going to outline what it’s like to work in this kind of team and share how my background in market research led to a passion for UX.”

(Jessica Hall a.k.a. @mycatistheboss ~ Johnny Holland Magazine)

Seven Organizational Barriers to Designing Better Experiences

Added on 16 September 2011 Peter Bogaards
Reading this, I would almost give up on organizations. But I don’t.

“Over the last 6 years, I’ve been fascinated by watching how teams work together to create experiences. Much of these 6 years was spent with agile teams. Slowly, my personal practice as a user experience designer has evolved. Instead of focusing on what I can do to improve the experience, I’ve come to focus on what I can do to improve the organization.”

(Austin Govella a.k.a. @austingovella ~ Follow the UX Leader)

The S.M.A.R.T. User Experience Strategy

Added on 14 September 2011 Peter Bogaards
Or how old skool insights can be revived.

“(…) I (and many others) have been told to “create a good user experience.” We’ve heard this in creative briefs, project kick-off meetings and critiques. It may have been a bullet point in a PowerPoint presentation or uttered by someone trying to sell a client or company on the value of their services. But there’s a fundamental problem with stating that your goal is to “create a good user experience.” It’s not specific, directly measurable, actionable, relevant or trackable. Thus, it will create disagreement and disorganization, sending many projects into chaos. However, we can avoid this by using S.M.A.R.T. goal-setting criteria when defining user and business goals.”

(Dickson Fong a.k.a. @dicksonfong ~ Smashing Magazine)

Interaction Design Tactics For Visual Designers

Added on 12 September 2011 Peter Bogaards
It keeps coming back to the idea of ‘know the material you work with’.

“Interaction design is a multi-faceted discipline that links static communications together to form an experience. Understanding the basic principles of this discipline is core to designing websites that are not only aesthetically pleasing but that actually solve business problems and bring delight to their users. This article just scratches the surface of interaction design. For Web designers of any kind, considering these fundamentals when designing any transaction or interaction is imperative.”

(Jeff Gothelf a.k.a. @jboogie ~ Smashing Magazine)

Framing the Practice of Information Architecture

Added on 7 September 2011 Peter Bogaards
The ship ‘Titanic’ sets course to a new UX iceberg.

“Over the past two decades, the volatile evolution of Web applications and services has resulted in organizational uncertainty that has kept our understanding and framing of the information architect in constant flux. In the meantime, the reality of getting things done has resulted in a professional environment where the information architect is less important than the practitioner of information architecture.”

(Nathaniel Davis a.k.a. @iatheory ~ UXmatters)

Leveraging UX Insights to Influence Product Strategy

Added on 7 September 2011 Peter Bogaards
How UX influences product strategy and the other way around.

“Many UX researchers and analysts aspire to influencing not only design implementation, but also product strategy. However, it is rather difficult to effect this kind of influence because user research insights tend to center on design and fail to speak to a company’s overall strategy for a product. In this article, I’ll describe how you can influence product strategy through a well-defined approach to user research and illustrate this approach by describing my first-hand experience with it. I’ll also discuss how any UX professional intending to add business value can leverage this approach in influencing product strategy.”

(Frank Guo ~ UXmatters)

Great Customer Experiences Learn Continuously

Added on 30 August 2011 Peter Bogaards
Humans just have one mission in life and that’s to learn. From the beginning ’til the end.

From Apple’s poster for its retail employees. – “All of these experiences have made us smarter. And at the very center of all we’ve accomplished, all we’ve learned over the past 10 years, are our people. People who understand how important art is to technology. People who match, and often exceed, the excitement of our customers on days we release new products. The more than 30,000 smart, dedicated employees who work so hard to create lasting relationships with the millions who walk through our doors. Whether the task at hand is fixing computers, teaching workshops, organizing inventory, designing iconic structures, inventing proprietary technology, negotiating deals, sweating the details of signage, or doing countless other things, we’ve learned to hire the best in every discipline.”

(Mike Wittenstein a.k.a. @mikewittenstein)

What marketing executives should know about user experience

Added on 27 August 2011 Peter Bogaards
Marketing 2.0 has a change, and that’s not marketing the social way.

“Like it or not, the digital world has changed at a wicked pace, and more and more interactions between companies and their customers now happen via an interface. Software serves us everywhere, and the user experience now shapes these interactions every day. At the center of all this change sits the brand. TV and print advertising now regularly feature digital experiences from the likes of Apple, Google, Toyota, GE, and Amazon. The visual interface has become the new face of your brand. This means that the role of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) is now harder, and their influence must reach further into the organization than ever before.”

(Nick Myers a.k.a. @nickmyer5 ~ Cooper Journal)

Where Do Good UX Ideas Come From?

Added on 26 August 2011 Peter Bogaards
I would say AAPL, but that’s problably not a satisfying answer.

“Many companies struggle with the question of whether to develop UX strategy, research, and design capabilities internally, or to engage external UX firms as-needed when projects arise. Companies must forecast their need for these services on a long-term basis, and weigh the comparative costs and benefits of each approach. But is it purely a question of economics? Does an external UX team offer value beyond the flexibility and overall cost savings of not maintaining an internal team? When asked only in the context of individual projects, the answer to this question is probably ‘no’. For a single project, the rationale for engaging an external UX firm may remain purely financial. But it’s crucial to ask a broader question: how effective will each approach be at fostering ongoing UX innovation, beyond the limits or needs of existing projects?”

(Nick Gould a.k.a. @nickgould ~ UX Magazine)

What I Bring to UX From Computer Science

Added on 26 August 2011 Peter Bogaards
As a designer, you must know the materials you’re working with: computational and connected data, information and content.

“Human-Computer Interaction has strong roots in Computer Science, and user experience design is almost exclusively a technology-focused practice. How much does UX design share with its engineering-focused sibling? I’m going to share some thoughts about my experiences from making the transition from software engineering to UX, and how my past career has made an influence in my roles as a user experience designer today.”

(Boon Chew a.k.a. @boonych ~ Johnny Holland Magazine)

Desktop Summit: Claire Rowland on service design

Added on 25 August 2011 Peter Bogaards
Service design as holism applied to man-machine studies, HCI, UI and product design for Linux pros.

“Like it or not, the vision of the interconnected future is coming, and our mundane devices and appliances are going that route as well. Making those things work well for users, while still allowing user freedom, is important, and it’s something the free software community should be contemplating.”

(Jake Edge ~ LWN.net)

The Difference Between UI and UX

Added on 23 August 2011 Peter Bogaards
As long as there is still confusion among few, these DTDT posts seem relevant. ‘Filed in Graphics’ (sic!)

“In today’s creative and technical environment, the terms UI (‘User Interface’) and UX (‘User Experience’) are being used more than ever. Overall, these terms are referring to specialties and ideas that have been around for years prior to the introduction of the abbreviated terminology. But the problem with these new abbreviations is more than just nomenclature. Unfortunately, the terms are quickly becoming dangerous buzzwords: using these terms imprecisely and in often completely inappropriate situations is a constant problem for a growing number of professionals, including: designers, job seekers, and product development specialists. Understanding the proper separation, relationship and usage of the terms is essential to both disciplines.”

(Shawn Borsky a.k.a. @anthemcg ~ Design Shack)

You can’t save your way to innovation

Added on 23 August 2011 Peter Bogaards
“Speed, cost or quality, just pick two.” is 20th century thinking. “Creativity, productivity or freedom, just pick one.” is 21th century.

“What’s wrong, you might argue, with keeping costs down? Quite a bit, it turns out. If your objective is to design a product people want to use, or to invent something brand new, you must embark on a journey of creativity and innovation. That might seem like normal, every day business, but don’t make the mistake of trying to run your creative organization like a conventional one.”

(Alan Cooper a.k.a. @MrAlanCooper ~ Cooper Journal)

5 Proven UX Strategies

Added on 22 August 2011 Peter Bogaards
Set expectations, and then exceed them.

“Whether dealing with large corporations, game developers, small businesses or a sole proprietor, most business goals tend to amount to the same needs. User experience is an area that touches almost every single business problem. While every project comes with its own unique situations, there are a few tried-and-true user experience techniques that just work well and always produce results.”

(Shawn Borsky a.k.a. @anthemcg ~ DesignM.ag)

Why I’m not a UX Designer (and neither are you)

Added on 19 August 2011 Peter Bogaards
Interesting observation by the Don: “When terms enter the vocabulary, they start to loose their special meaning.”

“I think it comes from a growing disregard for the systems nature of product design. What’s taken hold is this notion that because a user’s experience with a product is influenced by that product’s design, the experience as a whole can therefore be designed.”

(Aaron Weyenberg a.k.a @aweyenberg)